Brits Continue To Share Passwords Despite Knowing Risks

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Survey urges Brits to stop sharing login details and using the same passwords

More than half of Brits share passwords that could put their financial information at risk despite three quarters acknowledging such practices are dangerous.

A survey by LastPass found 96 percent of respondents have shared up to six passwords with others, with 72 percent sharing such credentials verbally.

Overshare

Worryingly for British businesses, almost half of the respondents said that they were more likely to share their work passwords than personal passwords, with eight percent also saying that they shared business-related corporate passwords.

When it came to the top reasons behind sharing passwords, 38 percent of respondents said that they did so in order to give someone remote access, and 31 percent of respondents also say they share passwords in case of an emergency.

“The fact that 75 percent of people acknowledge the risks associated with sharing passwords continue to do so suggests they are not aware of more secure alternatives” said Joe Siegrist, vice president and general manager of LastPass.

“The 79 percent of people who opt to use the same or a similar password across several sites could be jeopardising sensitive financial and personal information for the sake of convenience.”

The British trend of favouring convenience over security by sharing their passwords despite being repeatedly urged not to has been highlighted repeatedly in recent months.

Back in January, SplashData’s fifth annual list of the most popular passwords used online in North America and Western Europe during 2015 found that, once again, “123456” and “Password” came out on top as the people’s choice.

A recent Kaspersky study also found that nearly half of Internet users admitted to having shared their passwords with somebody or leaving them visible for people to see, opening them up to serious risk of compromise or attack.

However LastPass’s own password management service is no silver bullet. Earlier this year a researcher devised a way of gaining login credentials, and even a two factor authentication code, through a phishing attack, while in 2015, LastPass suffered a major data breach, forcing it to prompt all users to change their master passwords. Third party credentials were not affected.